


Because they're worth it; or, Shared pain

by dmichelle312



Series: Glimpses of parallel universes/alternate realities in the multiverse [3]
Category: Original Work, Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, 悪魔城ドラキュラ | Castlevania Series
Genre: Alchemy, Alternate Universe, Castles, Conflict, Dark, Darkness, Depressed Alucard | Adrian Tepes | Arikado Genya, Developing Relationship, Dhampir, Dimension Travel, Falling In Love, Fights, Grumpy Trevor Belmont, Holding Hands, LLF Comment Project, Magic, Other, Other worlds in danger, Peacekeepers, Pokemon & Human Relationships, Pokemon Death, Race Wars, Requited Love, Tender Mathias Cronqvist, The Chosen - Freeform, Time Travel, Time Travel issues, Training, Vampire Hunters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:53:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25660924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dmichelle312/pseuds/dmichelle312
Summary: A young woman find herself in a parallel universe/alternate universe where she is pretty much dragged into a deadly race war by the inhabitants of that world and the inhabitants of other worlds who are visiting that world just like her. Then she experience time travel issues and struggle with feelings of despair, guilt, powerlessness and personal inadequacy as she fall in love with a man and try to save his soul from darkness and hopelessly watch two people she care about give into depression.
Relationships: Original human character(s) & Human character(s), Original human character(s) & Non-human Character(s)
Series: Glimpses of parallel universes/alternate realities in the multiverse [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1461856
Comments: 6





	Because they're worth it; or, Shared pain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Irhaboggles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Irhaboggles/gifts).



> This story is heavily based on glimpses I have seen of parallel universe/alternate realities in "dreams".
> 
> Folks, telling this story is not easy for me because every time I think about it I can't stop crying, even after several weeks. Writing is a very cathartic experience for me and for most people who post their works on here. Catharsis is the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, especially through certain kinds of art, as writing, tragedy or music. Writing this down is a very cathartic experience for me, so here is part 3 of my series entitled "Glimpses of parallel universes/alternate realities in the multiverse".
> 
> Watch this first, folks:
> 
> [Video 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRRk1G-MicM)
> 
> [Video 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjf6LSS48dQ)
> 
> [Video 3](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egrCi6Ml4fE)
> 
> [Video 4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJpIclDmi2M)
> 
> [Video 5](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MQxzbk-LMk)
> 
> [Video 6](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l0R_muXmhs)
> 
> [Video 7](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kar3mxwnEWw)
> 
> [Video 8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK2FatvkA_0)
> 
> Also when you're done reading my story, folks, watch those playlists on science, multiverse, "dreams", parallel universes, alternate selves, quantum jumping and beings of various species in the multiverse (and check out the playlist description of the first playlist, you'll find links to several articles on these topic, some of those articles are about science and scientific discoveries, others are people talking about their own experiences, and there's even three articles showing that Multiverse theory does NOT conflict with the existence of God and/or Christian belief):
> 
> [Playlist 1](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzG_3q50DuPn66chQBVr5QMCFxZ_qugGU)
> 
> [Playlist 2](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzG_3q50DuPmVJ8zCLOwlTtcveSffN1Sx)

What if "dreams" aren't really "dreams", but us living a parallel life in a parallel universe and sleep is just the portal into the parallel universes. A lot of other people share this theory and agree that it is most probably the case. Also, a lot of science books and magazines talk about parallel universes, also known sometimes as alternate realities or alternate timelines, about the multiverse and our alternate selves, and about other things such as quantum jumping or the mandela effects. Think about it. What if your "dreams" are realities from parallel universes. And possibly, your reality is one of their "dreams". What if "dreams" are actually just the adventures you have in parallel universes across the multiverse?

That would explain why everything in those "dreams" feel just as real as this reality, if not more at times. That would also explain why we "awake" or "wake up" in those "dreams" and are just as lucid there as we are here, and why when we touch objects there like a wall, a table, a rock, or a doll, it feels just as solid and tangible underneath our hands and fingers as any object in our reality. It also explains why at times we have two sets of memories while inhabiting one of our alternate selves, our own and that of our alternate self. For example, you meet someone in that parallel universe and part of you know that you have been friends with this individual for years while another part of you know that you just met that person for the first time and that you cannot possibly know this person and yet you do and cannot shake off the feeling. Or you're grieving the loss of a dear friend you were close to while at the same time wondering why you are so affected by the passing away of someone you have never seen or heard about before and yet have personally known for years and you can't shake off the feeling. We share the memories of our alternate selves while we inhabit them and we remember their memories after we have inhabited them.

I think we don't really "dream", we actually live two lives simultaneously in parallel universes and consciousnesses switch from one to the other by sleeping. We don't realize this right away because when we are in one life, the other life feels like a "dream", at least at first and is less perceived by the untrained mind. In those parallel universes, there are beings and creatures that do not exist in our reality, because in our world they either went extinct or went into hiding a long time ago. There's two of my trips in parallel universes that I remember with perfect clarity and as if it was yesterday.

I was in another world and apparently I was not the only one from my world who ended up in that parallel universe. Very quickly, I began to become aware that I was no longer in my universe and that I was in another world. I thought to myself, "I'm "dreaming" and I'm in one of those thousands of parallel universes, I read about that in science books and magazines, it was about quantum mechanics and quantum physics." I was inside a cave. That's what caused me to become aware that I was "dreaming" and I then became very "lucid". I put my hands on one of the cave's walls and ran my fingers across the wall, I felt its rocky material underneath my fingers and thought to myself, "I love the sensations I experience here in those other dimensions or realities, that's proof that it's all real. I can see, hear, smell, taste and touch everything that's in those other worlds just like everything that's in my original reality, those other universes are just as real as my original universe, the only difference in terms of senses is in some of those other realities my senses are more acute."

I remembered the advice I had been given and started to close my eyes to say the words that would keep my spirit/astral body anchored to that parallel universe, but I remembered being told that closing your eyes was not a good idea and would do the exact opposite of anchoring you to the parallel universe, and last time I had closed my eyes and it had shortened and ruined my experience and I "woke up" in my original reality prematurely. I kept my eyes wide open and remembering the advice I had been given, I started saying the words that would anchored me that parallel universe and hopefully allow me to interact with it for a longer period of time. I said in my head "I am "dreaming", I am "dreaming"." And I reminded myself two or three times that it was important that I repeat this process a few times during that adventure, especially if I felt that parallel universe slip from me, and I remembered that I was told that I would know how to stabilize my lucid "dreams" and extend them, perhaps for as long as an hour (of course, that's only an approximation, I've come to find out over the years that the astral world, spirit world, and parallel universes/alternate realities that we visit in our lucid "dreams" obey different rules in terms of time, cycles, seasons, what some of us refer to as space and matter, etc, compared to our world, that is the rules these universes obey are different than our world's, and in most of those universes our world's laws and rules do no apply, like for example gravity and the restraints of a physical body don't exist in many of those universes, that's why we can fly or teleport or communicate via telepathy).

I took a look at my surroundings, I saw the tunnels in the cave go on and on, and decided that I would search for an exit. It didn't take me too long to find it. I leaned against the cave's wall and looked outside. I felt the warmth of the sun on my face. But it didn't last. The sky turned light grey and clouds covered the sun. It looked as if it was going to rain or snow. It was a beautiful world, but I knew from the moment I saw it that this other world was going through dark times, and that it's inhabitants needed hope that things would get better someday and needed hope that their efforts weren't lost in some sort of black hole but rather it mattered. It was a "gut feeling" I had. In those parallel universes when I am "lucid", my intuition and spiritual senses are often much more acute, just like my five senses.

I heard a commotion and people arguing, so I began to wonder what was going on and I ran out of the cave. I saw four men fighting and arguing with each other and a fifth one was trying to calm them down. There was also a sixth man tied to a chair with a rope. It's not the first time that this kind of thing happens to me, because I had numerous lucid "dreams" over the years and I traveled to dozens of parallel universes/alternate realities, so I shouldn't be surprised when I see these kinds of things. But my jaw nearly dropped when I saw that one of the men who was arguing with the other three was in fact Wallace, the gym leader of Sootopolis City. He was wearing his white and teal shirt, his purple pants, and his white cape and beret, his teal hair swaying in the wind. He didn't seem surprised or upset to see me there. He gave me a compassionate look and smiled kindly at me as if to tell me, "I know things are messed up here sometimes, but trust me, it will work out for the best in the end." My jaw nearly fell on the floor again when I realized that the young man in his early twenties who was tied to a chair was none other than Guzma, ex-leader of Team Skull, and that the other three men Wallace had been arguing with were some of Guzma's former grunts. As for the man who trying to calm them down, he was a stranger and I didn't know him.

I thought to myself, "My God, what is this place? And why does it look like this world is on the verge of war?" I remembered what I had been told about keeping my emotions in check and under control or facing the risk of seeing the parallel universe slip from me and "waking up" in my original reality prematurely. I repeated the process and the words that would keep me anchored to that parallel universe, just in case, but I was able to quickly keep my emotions in check and under control. It seems that I've been gaining more and more experience and automatic reflexes with every lucid "dream" experience I've had over the years as an "oneironaut". The stranger asked Guzma if he was "calmer now" and Guzma said, "Yes, sir", and Guzma apologized for his earlier behavior, probably losing his temper and throwing a fit of anger. And I saw guilt and sadness in Guzma's eyes. That would explain why he had a fit of anger. Classic Guzma. He had no idea what to do with emotions. And it certainly didn't help that he was physically and psychologically abused by his father growing up, constantly beaten, made to feel like crap and told that whatever he said or did was never good enough. No wonder he ran away from home and started a gang with other abused and neglected kids in an attempt to survive on the street.

Guzma was having a conversation with the stranger, the man I didn't know. That man seemed nice enough and Guzma seemed to have a lot of respect for him for some reason. When the man saw that Guzma was indeed calmer, he untied Guzma. The man walked away and he and the other four men started cooking dinner after they started a campfire. Guzma beckoned to me as if he wanted to speak to me. He engaged me in conversation and he told me that he had volunteered to be the leader of a chosen group of people working for a common objective. Their goal? Closing the racial divide whilst stopping an insane bloody war before it goes too far. The group he was chosen to lead were trying to save the world for the sake of humans and Pokemon, and were determined to prevent a disaster. They didn't want people and Pokemon to suffer and/or die because of the folly of a few crazy and foolish people who would partake in a race war or fuel one for their own selfish gains. Guzma told me he volunteered to lead this group because he wanted to redeem himself for some of the things he had done when he was the leader of Team Skull, and also because he wanted to help make this a better world, and make it safer for people and Pokemon.

A moment later, I heard a bunch of angry people shouting and fighting. I saw Wallace give Guzma a look that said, "Oh no, not again." Guzma jumped to his feet and quickly walked away. I saw a group of people join him and they followed him. The three men who were his former grunts looked like they were having an internal struggle on whether they should go with Guzma and his group, or stay behind to help Wallace and this stranger (the man I didn't know) who was working with him, and which one of those options was the best. They wanted to serve and help Guzma to the best of their ability, because even though he technically wasn't their boss anymore, he was their friend, he had looked out for them for all these years when they were in Team Skull after they ran away from home, and they cared about him and about the fate of the world. The angry people shouting and fighting were separated into two groups and they were at each other's throats. Some of them were light-skinned and others were dark-skinned, they all had their Pokemon behind them or by their side. I heard some of them shout, "Black lives matter!" and others shouted, "No, ALL lives matter!" I was horrified when I saw two or three people tear someone to shreds who was then left bleeding on the concrete and two Pikachu pretty much tearing each other's neck out with their teeth. They just didn't seem to realize that race wars kill and can cause tremendous devastation to people, buildings, communities, and entire countries or regions.

Wallace told me that these people, whom I knew by then came from my world and were just visitors to that parallel universe like myself, were fighting and killing each other in the name of "black liberation" and "white liberation", and some of them fighting over things like "Between a doctrine of black supremacy and a doctrine of white supremacy, which one is the most prevalent and dangerous one, which one caused the most deaths, and how many people suffered and died at the hands of the black supremacists, the white supremacists and the Asian supremacists, etc". Wallace said that it wasn't a fucking competition and that ALL supremacist ideology is evil and destructive. Wallace said that this whole supremacist ideology thing was sheer insanity and that it needed to stop, that he didn't want to see more people and Pokemon suffer and die and the world going down the toilet. I couldn't have agreed more with him. I've seen black supremacists and Asian supremacists complain about interracial dating and race mixing alongside white supremacists, they were just as racist and bigoted as the white supremacists but they argued that "only white people can be racist" and that they were "soooo oppressed", they always tried to excuse and justify their racism and bigotry, shifting blame and playing the victim. And I would tell them, "Like, what the absolute fuck? It's none of your fucking business who's dating who as it is anyway, let alone you complaining about their race." Good grief, I can't believe this is happening in the 21st century, people are supposed to know better now, yet they're all hypocrites who shift blame, do what they condemn others doing, and conveniently absolve themselves of any responsibility.

The stranger, the man I didn't know, had a gloomy look in his eyes. I nodded. I was just as horrified as Wallace and that stranger were. These two groups of imbeciles would kill each other, themselves and their Pokemon too, over race, skin colors, creeds and greed. As someone said, "Is there honor in brawling over skin colors when the skin would become food for worms and plants at the end of the journey? How witty is it to clash over land when land owns us in the end? This is why the wise among us bequeath virtue and true honor to the world so people can remember them. Detesting anyone in the name of race lacks good judgment." People should strive to come together as one human race, not tear each other apart or tear each other down over skin colors and race and creeds in stupid oppression olympics. Fostering a victimhood mentality doesn't help anybody. And the solution is to stop the stupid oppression olympics and just focus on all issues and helping all people who need help regardless of their skin color, ethnicity, sexuality, creed, etc, instead of making everything into a race or gender issue, thus leaving entire groups behind because they're supposedly "privileged" which is a way of telling them that we just don't give a shit about their issues and suffering. There is no such thing as race issues or gender issues, only human issues. If people don't get that, the stupid race wars and gender wars will never stop, and we will never move together into the future as one human race.

I looked at Wallace and the stranger and told them that like Guzma and his group, I would try to do something to put an end to this insane war. I would try to do something to stop the white supremacists from causing more destruction and I would try to do something to stop the Feminazis/BLM black supremacists from starting more riots and killing cops and white people. Both groups were destroying human lives, families, buildings, communities, and entire countries or regions and it needed to stop. When I said that like Guzma and his group, I would try to do something to put an end to this insane war, Wallace and the stranger nodded and I could see in their eyes that they believed in Guzma and also believed in me. I knew I had to let Guzma go and do whatever he had to do to stop this war, even though I was worried about his safety. All I could do is pray that he would be safe. I also wondered if Nanu was still alive somewhere and I prayed for his safety. Then I decided to return to the cave I had found myself in when I first arrived in that other world. Maybe I would find something there that would help end the war and save the world. An object, a spirit guide, a powerful Pokemon, an idea, etc. I had to find something, anything.

I started searching the tunnels in the cave. Feeling that parallel universe slip from me, I thought, "Oh no. Not now. Now is really not the time for this." I repeated the process and the words that would anchor me to that parallel universe and keep me "lucid" and I put my hands on one of the cave's rocky walls and ran my fingers across the wall, like I did when I was there the first time, as tactile sensation are grounding and usually help one anchor themselves to a parallel universe. I remembered being told that the sense of touch (i.e tactile awareness) is the most powerful anchor you have in a lucid "dream". It worked and my surroundings stopped fading away and being foggy, the "dream" stabilized and I remained "lucid". I knew I didn't have much longer, I knew I didn't have much time left, and that my original physical body got more than enough "sleep" and I would soon be pulled back into my original physical body, leaving that parallel universe and returning to my original reality. I had already prolonged my stay there a few times with the stabilization and anchoring methods I had been given. I started searching the cave for something, frenetically and desperately searching for something, anything that would help end the war and save the world, with a feeling of urgency in the pit of my stomach so to speak.

I couldn't leave that parallel world, couldn't leave those people behind. I had to do something to end that war, I had to find something, anything. I had to stay. I had to stay. I had to stay. A short moment later while I was still desperately searching for something and miserably failing, my surroundings started fading and becoming foggy and it's with a feeling of desperation and powerlessness that I was pulled back into my original body and returned to my original reality.

I've heard that there are ways to re-enter the same lucid "dream" and parallel universe. I tried to go back to that same parallel universe/alternate reality, I tried several time, but I couldn't do it. I want to see the conclusion to that conflict or that war or whatever. And I need to know if Guzma, Wallace and the others are okay, and if they managed to train some people in mediation and conflict-solving. What's happening in that parallel universe/alternate reality might also be (to an extent) a reflection of dark times to come in our world, what with all the race wars and gender wars created and fueled by the media and people recently being tortured and/or murdered live on Facebook in the name of race, skin colors, genders, and other such arbitrary characteristics that should never divide us, all this just because some imbeciles want to partake in race or gender wars, or fuel them for their own selfish gains, like the government and the media for example.

* * *

I said earlier that there's two of my trips in parallel universes that I remember with perfect clarity and as if it was yesterday. Here's the second one. Telling the story of my previous trip to parallel universes was not easy. Who enjoys being dragged into a fucked up race war by racial militias led by bigoted, violent militant extremists who force humans to kill each other and Pokemon to kill each other in the name of their ideology? Who enjoys feeling powerless to help the peacekeepers who are trying to end those wars and conflicts? One of the worst feelings is feeling powerless to help people you care about. Telling the story of my second trip to parallel universes is not easy either, but I'm going to do it anyway. It was an experience that I will never forget, one that left its mark on me, just like the one with the school, the woman and the lizardman, just like the one with the whale spirit guide, just like the one with Wallace and Guzma.

There was this handsome nobleman in his early thirties with pale skin, ebony black hair and light blue eyes. His name was Mathias Cronqvist. He was born in 1062. He was in his early thirties in the 1090s, this was like 930 years ago. It was the 11th century, the period from 1001 to 1100 in accordance to the Julian calendar, and the 1st century of the 2nd millenium. In the history of Europe, this period is considered the early part of the High Middle Ages. He was born into a family of alchemists and was instructed by his father in science and philosophy. Because Mathias's family had books recording secret arts transmitted orally concerning alchemy, a science that experiments with the arcane, Mathias himself had a detailed knowledge of alchemy and was a talented alchemist. When I met him, I fell madly in love with him. I was so happy that he returned my feelings. I thought it was one sided but I was wrong. But there was one thing that I didn't lose sight of. I was from the future and I knew who and what he would become if I didn't avert him from that path and save his soul from darkness. 

Over time, I managed to get him to live without vengeance and I even convinced him that being a crusader was morally wrong. I showed him that being a crusader and supporting the crusades involved killing people in the name of religion, killing people for believing differently (adherents from various sects of Christianity and people of other religions) or for being non-religious or non-believer (what we now call Atheists, but the term athéisme or atheism was coined in France in the sixteenth century, so that specific term didn't exist in the eleventh century and therefore Mathias wouldn't have heard of it let alone used it in the 1090s), killing people who question or disagree with a priest or the clergy or a member of the papacy, and would involve mistaking medical breakthroughs for witchcraft, torturing people suspected of using witchcraft on a mere accusation and letting them drown for having a so-called "devil's mark" (birth mark) while aiming at them with weapons to kill them if they don't drown, examining and killing women for their "crime" of not being a virgin, running people through with swords, burning them at the stake, ripping families apart, killing parents and ruining the lives and innocence or children. 

I reminded him that Jesus taught nonviolence, nonviolent conflict resolution, turning the other cheeck, loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us. Some people taught that the ultimate “just war” would have been to defend Jesus with violence, but Jesus vehemently rebukes Peter for attempting exactly this: “All who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Mt 26:51-53, cf. Lk 22:49-51), which is just another way of saying "violence breeds more violence and this never ends well". Jesus then heals his aggressor before informing Pilate that his followers’ nonviolence is the proof that his Kingdom is supernatural (Jn 18:36). The new testament teaching on nonviolence and self-sacrificial love for enemies is one of the most explicit and unambiguous in the whole bible, it is never qualified, equivocated, watered down, or conditioned.

Mathias had renounced being a crusader, turned his back on war and rode west with a person he was supposed to have killed, a person he ended up being friends with in the end. Then he came back home and when I saw him again, he told me that our conversations convinced him. I was glad that he had walked away from a destructive ideology. I had never felt so in love with and so close to someone before. It was wonderful. But at some point, I realized that somehow we were no longer in the 1090s but were in 2020 and we had traveled to the future, well, my era. We were in front of the house where my maternal grandmother was living before she passed away a few years back. Mathias didn't seem bothered or upset that we had traveled to the future. He was tenderly holding my hand, smiling lovingly at me and only had eyes for me. Unforgettable is the inebriation one feels when experiencing the bliss of love. When we are truly in love we abandon ourselves in that feeling. And I was living in the moment one hundred percent and I was happy. 

But some things were bothering me. I soon realized that in the parallel universe where I met that version of Mathias, he never met and married Lisa and never would because he had chosen me. Also, in that parallel universe, not only did he never meet and marry Lisa, but he also never became a vampire. And that meant he never had a dhampir son with Lisa. and that also meant that Adrian was never born. That version of Mathias came from a parallel universe where he never became a vampire and where he never met and Married Lisa because he chose to be with me and as a result of that, his son Adrian was never born there. I was horrified and sad. Because I had averted Mathias from the path of darkness and because I had saved his soul from darkness prematurely or too soon, his son Adrian was never born there. A world without Adrian Tepes was a world that was not as beautiful and wonderful as it should be, a world without him was a world that didn't have as much beauty and light as it should. A world without him was a world missing out. A world without him was a world I didn't want to imagine living in. 

A voice in the back of my head told me that Lisa had failed to save Mathias's soul from darkness and that was why he not only went to war against God but also against humans and mankind as a whole after her death and that I had succeeded where she had failed and that I knew for certain he wouldn't give in to the darkness after MY death. But I was still upset and very sad that Adrian did not exist in that universe. I had so many mixed feelings. I got filled with so many emotions I felt I was going to burst. I was madly in love with Mathias and blissfully happy, but I was also sad because his son didn't exist in his universe and he would never get to know his son. Also, I was wondering how I went from being in love with the son to being in love with the father and I was actually genuinely concerned about whether it was messed up or not. I didn't have it all figured out and I didn't know the answers to my questions, but maybe I could continue to ask the questions and to seek answers and maybe I would eventually find some answers on this journey called life. Mathias noticed that I was internally struggling with mixed emotions and that I looked happy and sad at the same time, but he didn't press the issue, he chose to let me decide when and how to open up about it.

We were back in the 1090s. I was sitting in the same room with him. I was sitting near the window and he was sitting at a table with his books, plants, cauldron, vials, mortar, pestle, and tools, working on his alchemical experiments. One of the key areas of human endeavor that the alchemists were involved in was medicine. The essence of medicine is transformation, and the alchemists transformed deadly poisons or otherwise inert organic substances into valuable medicines capable of bringing about beneficial healing transformations in the organism. His alchemical experiments and medicines would save lives and relieve suffering. I was proud of him. Also, If two of the greatest scientists who ever lived were dedicated alchemists, then alchemy needs a makeover, a big one, contend Lawrence Principe, a chemist and historian of science at Johns Hopkins University, and his colleague William Newman, a historian of science at Indiana University. Back in the day, the two argue, alchemy was not the "misguided pseudoscience" that most people think it was. Rather, it was a valuable and necessary phase in the development of modern chemistry.

Among alchemy’s signature accomplishments: creating new alloys; manufacturing acids and pigments; inventing apparatus for distillation, the process used in making perfumes and whiskeys; conceiving of atoms centuries before modern atomic theory; and providing a template for the scientific method by running controlled experiments again and again. Not to mention that modern-day chemistry owe a lot to alchemy. Aiming to restore alchemy to its rightful status, Lawrence Principe and William Newman — who came to the field separately but joined forces after meeting at a conference in 1989 — went through medieval alchemical texts, letters, and laboratory notebooks filled with odd symbols and coded language. Then they did something unheard-of in recent times: They made replicas of the laboratory glassware used by 15th-, 16th-, and 17th-century alchemists and re-created their experiments firsthand. It's also a well-known fact that Isaac Newton was the most famous alchemist of his time. Alchemy is fascinating. Shakespeare said in his sonnet 114, "Love is a form of alchemy where one's perception and appreciation of the world can be changed." A lot of people talked about "the potent alchemy of love" and said that love, friendship, the magnetic pull of planets, writing and gardening, etc, are forms of alchemy and that by studying alchemy one could discover the secrets of the universe and the wonders of positive transformations.

I made myself comfortable and watched Mathias move around the room and work on his alchemical experiments. One of his concoctions was boiling and he was taking notes and I was reveling in the soothing bubbling sounds and the soothing sounds of the quill scratching on the parchment. I felt happy just sitting there and watching him work. I felt at peace, happy and loved. I was happy to share this home with him. I loved this man more than anything and I felt so blessed to have him in my life. He was such a wonderful person, he was so attentive, tender and thoughtful. Mathias lovingly smiled at me and tenderly pressed my hand. He gently stroke my cheek, before returning to his experiments and inventions. At some point, he noticed that I was falling asleep. He smiled kindly at me, went to grab a blanket for me, covered me with it and kissed my forehead, telling me to rest. He kept working on his alchemical experiments and from time to time he gave me a look full of tenderness.

I fell asleep and when I woke up, I was in another parallel universe and Mathias was nowhere to be found. He wasn't around anymore in that universe. In that universe, his dhampir son did exist. Adrian or Alucard and his friend, Trevor Belmont, were wandering the halls of Castlevania. At times they would go to their respective rooms and lock themselves up, distancing themselves from each other or one of them would hang in the library room while the other was hanging in a study room. Adrian was depressed, withdrawn and uncommunicative and he spent a lot of time isolating himself in a room and absentmindedly turning the pages of a book. He was suffering and it broke my heart to see him like this. He was getting closer to broken every day and I didn't really know how to help him. I went in search of Trevor and when I found him, I tried to have a conversation with him about Adrian's depression. I asked him if he knew what was tormenting Adrian and if he knew of a way to help Adrian. Trevor was grumpy and grumbling unhelpful one word responses when I tried to talk to him. He was not evil or violent to me, he was just grumpy and probably going through a dark period of his life, but I felt safe in his presence and I knew that nothing would happen to me when he was around.

Trevor was hanging in a big room. I watched him summoned floating magical targets with his magic and destroy them with his Vampire Killer whip. He was probably training and preparing for an attack by the forces of evil. In order to spot the targets more quickly, he magically highlighted them with a green flame aura. It broke my heart to see Adrian and Trevor depressed, grumpy, withdrawn, sad. One of the worst feelings is feeling powerless to help people you care about. I was struggling with feelings of despair, guilt, powerlessness and personal inadequacy and I was hopelessly watching two people I cared about give into depression. I thought to myself, "If only Julius was here, he's the voice of reason and wisdom, I'm sure he'd find a way to help them. I wish Julius was here." Then I looked at Trevor, Julius' ancestor, and remembered that Julius Belmont wasn't born yet, that he wouldn't be born until 1980, centuries later. I felt powerless to help Adrian and Trevor. Our surroundings got darker and darker, as if the castle was creating a physical manifestation or reflection of their sad or depressed souls and their negative emotions and possibly mine as well. It got so dark at some point that I could barely see Trevor and the door leading outside the room. I reached out a hand towards him in a desperate attempt not to be separated from him, but I "woke up" in my original body in my original reality.

I felt like I had failed Adrian and Trevor, as well as Wallace and Guzma. The memories of the experiences I had in those parallel universes and the people I met there haunted me for several days and still haunt me to this day. I wish I could see those people again. I wish I could help make them feel better. I wish I could help them fix things and make their world a better place. I wish I could make a real difference for the better. And I do love those people dearly. But is that enough? And at this point I gotta wonder if I would only make things worse for them and their alternate dimensions if I tried to intervene again given the opportunity. And yet, I was often told that inaction is just as bad as if not worse than inadvertently making things worse and that all that is needed for evil to triump is for good men and women to do nothing. Concerning this, I don't really know what to think or make of this, really. Whether I intervene or not, I feel powerless to help the people I care about with their problems and it's not a nice feeling to have. Maybe my next trip in parallel universes will be a more positive one, but I got to meet those people I love and care about, those people I will never forget, and THAT I will never regret.

\- End -

\-------------------

Parallel universes have haunted science fiction for decades, but a large number of top scientists believe they are real and now in the labs and minds of theoretical physicists they are being explored as never before. There are more and more researchers that are now saying multiple realities and other dimensions have to be real.

And here are some good citations too:

"There's no such thing as fiction or imagination, as they're merely non-fiction manifestations in the wrong parallel universe." - Daniel Marques.

"The quantum theory of parallel universes is not the problem, it is the solution. It is not some troublesome, optional interpretation emerging from the arcane theoritical considerations. It is the explanation, the only one that is tenable of a remarkable and counter-intuitive reality." - David Deutsch.

"Quantum computation is... a distinctively new way of harnessing nature... It will be the first technology that allows useful tasks to be performed in collaboration between parallel universes." - David Deutsch.

"If I get a parking ticket, there is always a parallel universe where I didn't. On the other hand, there is a parallel universe where my car was stolen." - Max Tegmark.

"The only true borders lie between the universe and parallel universes." - Khalid Masood.

"Heaven is a parallel universe", Khalid Masood.

"If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration." - Nikola Tesla.

"In the parallel universe the laws of physics are suspended. What goes up doesn't necessarily come down, a body at rest does not tend to stay at rest, and not every action can be counted on to provoke an equal and opposite reaction. Time, too, is different. It may run in circles, flow backward, skip about from now to then. The very arrangement of molecules is fluid: tables can be clocks, faces, flowers. - Susanna Kaysen."

"In a parallel universe, someone cared about her not getting an education." - Sarah Mishra.

"Each nanosecond of history branches off into an infinite amount of parallel universes." - Pete Carroll.

"I was good at math and science, and I got a lot of degrees in lots of things, but in a parallel universe I probably became a chef." - Nathan Myhrvold.

"The universe is filled with the evidence of God's greatness. In awesome wonder we can consider the worlds He has made for us." - David Jeremiah.

"I entered what I can only describe as an alternate universe, and experience timelessness for myself. There was no refuting the immortality of the soul for me ever again after that." - Susan Schneider.

"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future." - Steve Jobs.

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

"Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand." - Neil Armstrong.

\- End -

\----------------------

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't agree more with her about these two groups of imbeciles and the far-left and far-right militancy on the American continent:
> 
> ["The Antifa wars are all about machismo", by Stephanie Guttman](https://nypost.com/2019/08/19/the-antifa-wars-are-all-about-machismo/)
> 
> And I couldn't agree more with this guy on the insanity of racial militias, the insanity of riots, and the hypocrisy of bigoted, pro-violence radicals:
> 
> [Video 1](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91GjZ_lCdxs)
> 
> [Video 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X4rwRbJUSI)
> 
> [Video 3](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbJ_A74KZuM)
> 
> [Video 4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMKLyUC4Xec)
> 
> Two must read articles on alchemy and positive transformations:
> 
> ["The potent alchemy of love", by Suzanne Eder](https://suzanneeder.com/the-potent-alchemy-of-love/)
> 
> ["Personal alchemy: three steps to positive transformations", by author unknown](https://www.consultpivotal.com/personal-alchemy-three-steps-to-positive-transformation/)
> 
> Like I said before, folks, I'm going to write more stories in the upcoming months. If you want to be notified when I post new works, subscribe to me on AO3.
> 
> Also, see this (and leave me some feedback/con-crit please):
> 
> [Long Live Feedback Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject)


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